When a fire breaks out in your workplace, do your employees know how to act? Will it be a chaotic scene with everyone panicking all over, or will they respond appropriately to minimize the loss of life and property? With a large number of people up and about in the premises, a simple fire can quickly snowball into a life-and-death scenario. Fire safety training ensures everyone knows how to prevent fires, and more importantly what to do in case of an emergency.
Importance Of Fire Safety Training
● Identifying fire hazards
Definitely, the best step is preventing the fires from breaking out in the first place. When heat comes into contact with flammable items, it can result in a fire being ignited, so training will focus on teaching your employees what triggers these incidents. This includes dynamics of fire itself, especially the combustion triangle – oxygen, heat and fuel – and interdependence of these elements in creating and sustaining fires.
● Preventing the spread of fires
What measures should the employees put in place in the workplace to stop fires from advancing all over the building? From maintaining a clean workspace, organising the wiring and dealing with exposed wires, avoiding blunders like overloading circuits – it all comes into focus. When the staff throughout the building are well equipped with knowledge on preventing fires and starving them off, it will reduce the risks of breakouts. With AMSL’s 2-hour Basic Fire Safety Course, your staff will be educated on best practices to keep your premises and everyone in it safe.
● Effective response
When a fire breaks out, what’s the plan that will be followed? Which routes will be taken? How will the fire alarm be activated, and where will the employees go? When a fire starts out in a specific part of the building what is the safest way out? When is it safe to make attempts to tackle the flames instead of evacuating? How can they work together to stop the fire from spreading, without putting themselves at additional risk? It’s critical to have all employees on the same page.
The fire safety training is not a one-time event. Rather, it should be continuous, keeping everyone up to date, meaning that the staff will need regular refresher courses to ensure that they are well equipped with the information. When there are changes in the workplace that affect the fire safety risks, the staff will also need to be trained on this. When risks increase, there may be a need to change the emergency plans and assembly points, and even getting new fire-fighting equipment.
● Legal requirements
Not only does the training aid in protecting your staff and business premises, but it also enables you to meet legal obligations as stipulated in the:
- 2005 Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act
- Fire Services Act 1981, amended in 2003
Fire Warden Training
In addition to the fire safety awareness, there is additional fire warden training, where the employees taking up this role have the responsibility of carrying out efficient and orderly evacuations. Fire wardens also help in preventing emergencies by the day-to-day monitoring of fire risk control measures, raising awareness about hazards that are in the premises, and leading both fire drills and actual evacuations – so they should be well versed with the different escape routes, how to handle the crowds under pressure, as well as assisting those with special needs, such as when evacuating an individual who is in a wheelchair.
Immediately the fire alarm is triggered, the fire wardens have a responsibility of directing everyone out of the premises through the required routes and exits; checking the accessible spaces in the area such as the bathroom to ensure that no one is left in the building; all through to guiding everyone to the assembly point and checking that each person who was in the premises has been accounted for.
Sign Up For Training From Certified Professionals
Being a fire warden is a weighty task, and requires expert training due to the higher risk involved during the emergencies, as their own lives will be on the line. Under AMSL Group’s Fire Safety Trainers, this is a half-day course complete with live physical demonstrations.
The number of fire wardens that a premises needs depends on the size of the workplace and the kind of business involved. For instance, businesses dealing with highly flammable substances are typical high-risk establishments and require more fire wardens. For the small businesses, one or two people who are fully aware of the layout of the building, including the location of the fire exits and have the training in managing an evacuation, should suffice. Medium to large businesses can have fire wardens for different floors, and it’s common to find establishments with chief and deputy fire wardens.
Remember that fire safety should not be the sole responsibility of just the fire wardens. What would happen if they are not at work the day a fire breaks out? As such, all staff need basic fire safety training to be well prepared when emergency strikes.
Get in touch to learn more about our fire safety courses and what you can do to protect your business